(hey, Ron. If this would be more at home in Connections, where the artists at the site hang out, feel free to move it)

It gives me a frankly-should-be-illegal-amount of pleasure to announce that the Game Chef Artists First! art and game design contest is seeking art submissions until April 5th.

We are looking for illustrations for a roleplaying game that does not exist, created in styles both far and near the RPG mainstream. The illustrations will then be used by a large pool of designers to create those very games.

The SkinnyTo enter, artists must draw a series of illustrations for a role-playing game text that doesn't exist!1. There must be 3-5 original (created for the contest) black and white illustrations, suitable for the interior of a book2. B&W only, size should be from 1/4 to a full 8.5x11 page, although strange form factors are A-OK (everything doesn't need to be contained in a rectangular bounding box)3. Each illustration should showcase a place, mood, person, idea or event. The illustrations shoud be thematically connected in some way.4. Submissions must be posted in the Game Chef forum as a unique thread in the Art Submissions category, or as an e-mail to gamechef08@gmail.com by 12:01am April 6th, 2008

Artists First is part of the Game Chef contest. Game Chef has run annually since 2002, and has become a center for small press and independent role-playing game development. Last year more than 120 people participated, and several games from that contest are in active playtest with plans for publication.

If you're a designer and not an artist, we don't need you for a couple of weeks, but feel free to register and sound off. Also, please repost this announcement anywhere you think it'll catch some eyeballs.

What is Game Chef?It's a yearly game design contest run by and produced for amateur and professional role playing game designers. Basically, a bunch of game design enthusiasts get together and try to design role playing games within a single week, using ingredients (in past years: words or rules, this year: art) as both inspiration and restriction for added challenge. In the end, a winner is declared, but the contest is more a means of building community and the experience of writing an RPG in a short time frame than it is to really win.

Why should you participate?Because you want to challenge yourself. Because you want to try writing an RPG. Because you need the practice. To make new friends from different communities. To get yourself out of a rut. For honor and glory. Because it's there.

How does the contest work this year?If you want detailed rules, click through to the site. In short, though, for the last two weeks a group of artists has been working to produce interior illustrations for a role-playing game that doesn't exist. Your task will be to pick some of those illustrations and use them to write that role-playing game!

What do you need to do to sign up?First, register for an account on the forum. Then, if you're absolutely sure you want to participate, post in the tap-in thread to let us know. If you'd rather wait until Friday to see the art and final rules bits, please do so.

When does it start?This Friday the 18th of April. The contest will run a week plus two weekends, ending on Monday the 28th.

Well, we had a fantastic contest. In the end, there were 78 game submissions. And more importantly, every piece of artwork was used at least once, which was my metric for success.

We're now entering a two week critique and playtesting period. I'd like to invite the Forge community to come and get involved with playtesting and critique, either by posting in the Game Chef forum or by posting playtesting threads over here in the Forge.